


Fire Inside

by afewreelthoughts



Series: My Words Will Be Your Light [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 14:16:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17920394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afewreelthoughts/pseuds/afewreelthoughts
Summary: "I don’t trust that woman,” Catelyn said.Stannis lifted his crude crown from his temples. His wife didn’t trust another woman looking at him? A woman devoted to the Seven distrusted a foreign priestess? Did she expect him to be surprised by any of that?





	Fire Inside

**Author's Note:**

> ASOIAF Rare Pair Week, Day 2: Burning // Freezing
> 
> I own nothing and make no money from this. Everything belongs to George R.R. Martin.

Stannis's eyes burned. Melisandre had found him at dinner and spirited him away to her rooms, his wife’s eyes burning into his back as he went, where she had asked him to gaze into the fires with her. He did not know what he was looking for, but when his eyes began to water, he thought he saw the flames take on the shapes of his family, dead and alive: Robert, Renly, his wife, their daughters… The images frightened him. Either he was losing his mind, or this woman from Asshai could make him see things that were not there. He departed without so much as a word, and made his way back to his rooms. 

 

As soon as he shut the door to their chambers behind him, his wife turned on him with fire in her eyes.  


"I don’t trust that woman,” Catelyn said.

Stannis lifted his crude crown from his temples. His wife didn’t trust another woman looking at him? A woman devoted to the Seven distrusted a foreign priestess? Did she expect him to be surprised by any of that? 

"When I care for your opinion, I will ask you for it,” he said. 

"Are we not enough for you?” Catelyn said. "Myself and the children and your kingdom? Now you must be a god as well?”

“You know that’s unfair.” Desperate to escape her accusing eyes, he turned to one of the tall windows that looked out over Blackwater Bay. He could see little in the darkness, lights from the castle reflected on the water, and far in the distance, perhaps, the silhouette of the Red Keep. Or it was a mere trick of the darkness.

“We must defeat Joffrey. You know that’s the most important thing.” He could speak more freely when her eyes were not fixed on his own. 

“We can do all of that without this woman's magic.”

“You know I don’t believe in magic.” 

“Then what do you believe in?”

His hands gripped the cold stone windowsill.

“Why listen to her?” she continued. 

“I don’t owe you an explanation for everything I do,” he said, but he sounded weak to his own ears, and he hated that.

“I’m your wife.”

She was standing behind him now, angry and warm, and a small part of him wanted to fall to his knees before her and beg her forgiveness. Another small part of him wanted to leap from the window before him instead of answering her questions, because he would not lie, but the truth… the truth was...

_I want to be told that I mean something. I want to be more than second best. I want to win._

She lay one hand on his shoulder.

"I want…” He found another truth to share. “for everything that has happened to make sense, and Melisandre… what she says makes sense.” 

"It makes sense that you’re a god come again?”

“Don't mock me! You know well that I get that more than enough from my family."

“I know,” Catelyn said, and she turned his chin slowly to face her. Her hair glowed copper in the light from the fireplace, and angle of the light revealed the lines etched around her mouth and eyes. “It doesn’t mean you need to play such a part to win your kingdom.” 

“You don’t know that.” 

“I know you. I know don’t need any paltry tricks to be a king.” 

“Other men use paltry tricks all the time.” 

She stroked his cheek and he could hear her unspoken words:  _And do you want to be like them?_

“I’m worried about Renly,” he confessed. “I haven’t heard from him since Robert’s death.”

“What do you think he might do?” 

Stannis snorted. “He’s in Mace Tyrell’s pocket, and there’s no telling what the Tyrells will try if given the chance.” 

Catelyn narrowed her eyes. “Leave the Tyrells to me.” 

He kissed her fiercely, the taste of her lips cooling the hot rage in his head. She wrapped her arms tight around him.

“I’ll set off for Highgarden in the morning,” she said.

“And I’ll dismiss Melisandre. I promise.” 

She kissed him again, slow and deep and full of promise. 

 _This is enough,_  he thought, holding his wife in his arms. _No matter what is coming, you will always_ _be enough._


End file.
